The present invention relates generally to remote object position and orientation determining systems employing an electromagnetic coupling and more particularly, is directed to new processing techniques for such systems.
Remote object position and orientation determining systems employing electromagnetic couplings are known in the prior art. Such systems are used for tracking and determining the position and orientation of remote objects in a wide variety of applications. However, the processing techniques that have been used in such prior art systems suffer from a number of limitations. The earliest systems were accurate and capable of producing solutions at all attitudes but were iterative processing techniques which slowly converged upon a solution with small angle approximations. Later, noniterative processing techniques were developed which converged faster but which included discontinuities which prevented the determination of position and orientation solutions for some sensor positions.